And the treatment begins....

I saw my oncologist mid-January.  After my last appointment I had come to the conclusion that I would definitely want to have a course of chemotherapy.  I felt strong after my surgery, I am young and I have my beautiful daughter; for all these reasons I knew that I wanted to do all I could to try to ensure that this cancer would have a near on impossible chance of returning.

Luckily she agreed with me; she explained that the chemotherapy would be every 3 weeks for 6 months and that it isn't a type of chemo that would make me loose all my hair (phew!!).  We spoke briefly about some of the side affects, including tingling fingers and toes, lowered immunity, a low chance of infertility and sickness/diarrhoea.  She was worried about my job as a nursery teacher; as you can imagine 3-4 year olds are full of germs and I would be at risk of catching all sorts if I returned to work during my treatment; and having no immune system would mean that a simple cold could be really dangerous.  So at the moment I have to stay off, but I am hoping that I cope well with the treatment and can return to work in some capacity; I do miss all my wonderful kiddies!!

The nurses recommended that I have a PICC line inserted into the top of my arm; it is like a long-term canular which goes into a vein in the upper arm all the way to one of the chambers in the heart.  I went to have this inserted on 30th January 2011, it was on okay procedure although I didn't look at what the nurse was doing!! Its quite big so short sleeves are out of the question for 6 months :( But hey ho, such is life.

Here's my lovely PICC line - very attractive!!

I was due to start the first round of chemo the next day; I arrived and was going through all the side affects with the nurse just before she plugged me in, but she was concerned that I hadn't explored the possibility that my fertility could be affected by the chemo.  So the treatment was halted whilst I went to a fertility clinic to discuss options about freezing my eggs.  I went to a clinic in Oxford where they spoke about the procedure of harvesting eggs, how the eggs don't freeze that well, that I would only have a 20% chance of the eggs resulting in a successful pregnancy and that the whole thing would cost over £3000!!! Ummmmm........... let me think about that for a nanosecond!!  Thanks but no thanks!! I am in the hands of God - whatever happens is meant to be.  I have a beautiful little girl and if I am only meant to have her then I am already more than blessed.

My chemo club membership card!!

So, I booked the chemo for the following week, but I'll save that for another post!! xx